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Will.i.am says technology has made the music industry he grew up with vanish (Picture: Getty)

Will.i.am has torn apart the music industry, blaming the disappearance of the golden age of music on technology.

But The Voice judge also declared the world needs geeks, admitting he wants to ‘breed’ them as they are responsible for the technology we know today.

Admitting he thinks the music industry is no longer what it was, the former Black Eyed Peas frontman said: ‘I want to help people like music helped me. But now the music industry is gone.’

Will continued: ‘What was once a world-class industry has turned into this thing called iTunes.

‘While iTunes is great, it’s one of the only things we have left.’

Will, 37, donated an impressive £500,000 to the Princes’ Trust last year and this week launched his science, technology, engineering and maths initiative for disadvantaged youths at the Science Museum in London.

The Black Eyed Peas frontman wants to ‘breed geeks’ (Picture: Getty)

Getting on board with the changing music industry, Will continued: ‘The future is technology and I want to see kids embrace that. The world doesn’t need another musician — it needs another Bill Gates.’

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Explaining what he means, he added to The Sun: ‘If it weren’t for geeks we wouldn’t have iPhones, tablets, the internet, instruments.

‘I think we think geeks aren’t cool because people don’t want to accept it when someone figures out something you haven’t. People get envious and want to bring them down.

‘But now there’s technology out there that we all aspire to have, it’s opened the door for geeks.

‘Geeks are the bomb. Basically, I want to breed geeks.’

Will is also keen to jump on the ‘geeks’ bandwagon and revealed he’s heading back to the classroom to swot up on computer studies.

‘In September I’ll be taking a computer science course at CalArts (California Institute Of The Arts) in LA because I’m passionate about where the world’s going. I’m curious about it and I want to contribute.

‘I’m going to school so when little kids are like, “I want to be like you, Will.i.am”, I’ll be all, “Well, I want to be like Mark Zuckerberg”.’